Moderate Islam faces challenge in Indonesia

In parts of Indonesia, more women are wearing head scarves in a nod to Islamic tradition.

In parts of Indonesia, more women are wearing head scarves in a nod to Islamic tradition. (Tribune photo by John Lee)

Kim BarkerTribune foreign correspondent

In this country, people crowd into mosques for Friday prayers, but the sex clubs are busy every night. Some people push for Islamic law, yet alcohol and drugs are easy to find. The malls feature the latest fashions for Muslims--colorful head scarves and designer tunics--but also blare out Christmas tunes to the masses non-stop throughout December.

Indonesia may be the world's most populous Muslim country, but it also is a mess of contradictions.

In many ways, Indonesia proves that Islam and democracy can work together, a combination that has failed in other parts of the Islamic world.

But a battle is being waged here over whether the country will stay on the path of moderate Islam or whether a new breed of Islamic fundamentalists will win over the countryside. The country continues to struggle with a poor economy, corruption and political instability. For many, Islam--and Islamic law--have become the answer.

"People are hoping for a savior from their crisis," said Jamhari Makruf, executive director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Society in Jakarta. "And what is normally the savior? Religion, of course."

Islam in Indonesia, a string of more than 17,000 islands in Southeast Asia, has always been different than in the Middle East. Nearly 90 percent of the 238 million people in Indonesia say they are Muslim, but the largest Islamic group follows a form of Islam blended with the Hindu and Buddhist religions and tribal traditions.

Some Muslims worship the Goddess of the Southern Ocean. One Islamic community practices matriarchal rule, which goes against Islam's patriarchal teachings. One messianic Islamic group is led by a woman claiming to have been appointed by the angel Gabriel.

For years the Indonesian government repressed most expressions of Islam. President Suharto reigned for three decades as a military dictator who viewed Islam and communism as threats to his regime. But in 1998 Suharto fell, unleashing Islam and democracy throughout the country.

Since then the number of Islamic parties, once heavily restricted, has multiplied. Islamic thought, from liberal to fundamentalist, has blossomed. The number of people making annual pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia has skyrocketed. Fashion designers sell high-end Islamic fashion to women who once did not cover their heads.

"The head scarf is a must," said Istiana, 22, whose father opened an Islamic clothing shop in Jakarta after the fall of Suharto. "It protects women from doing something bad. You can't go to the disco or the cafe. And men will pay more respect to women in a head scarf."

But extremist Islamic groups have found new freedom in democracy as well.

Fundamentalists once exiled from the country have returned. Extremist groups have recruited new members, fought a jihad, or holy war, on one of the country's islands, and staged three major terrorist attacks against Western targets, including one in October 2002 at two nightclubs on the island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Adjusting to democracy

Scholars and political experts say this is all part of a new democracy's extreme growing pains. The country still is trying to figure out the limits of free speech, and just what groups should be allowed to operate.

"In the last four or five years, everything is very new," said Nurcholish Madjid, a moderate Islamic scholar. "So we cannot avoid making errors. The hardest thing to make people understand is that this thing called democracy takes time to establish."

Fundamentalists also have called for Shariah, or Islamic law, a set of rules dictating everything from conservative dress to strict criminal punishments.

At least seven rural areas have elected leaders who have established some mild form of Shariah over the past three years. That is seen as a way to fight the endemic corruption that has drained Indonesia's economy. To reduce prostitution, one town has set an evening curfew for women. Other regions are contemplating criminal punishments, such as cutting off the hands of thieves or stoning adulterers.

"The hottest issue that's being discussed in Indonesia is the concept of Islamic Shariah," said Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, leader of the Liberal Islami Network in Jakarta. "But almost all the people promoting Shariah don't say what it is. They just say Shariah is a solution to the messy transition. The funny side of Shariah, in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians, [it] is reduced to the simple issue of dress. It's ridiculous."

Cianjur, about 60 miles southeast of the capital, Jakarta, is one of the areas that has adopted a form of Islamic law. Government workers there are asked to follow guidelines called "A Gateway Toward a Person With Perfect Character."

The workers talk about Islamic law as a utopia, a salvation from all that is wrong with Indonesia. They say they set the trend for the rest of town: Now most women in Cianjur wear head scarves and most men pray on Fridays.

"The security problems are down, the crime is down, the level of adultery has plunged to almost zero," said H. Oleh Solehudin, the head of Cianjur's budgetary division, adding that he knows about the adultery level because of discussions in staff meetings. "Life is now calming down here."

Islamic party makes gains

There are other signs of the increasing lure of Islam in Indonesia. In parliamentary elections in April, many Jakarta residents turned away from traditional political parties and voted for an Islamic party known for its support of Islamic law.

On college campuses, the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned throughout most of the Islamic world, operates openly, advocating Islamic law and the return of the Muslim caliphate, led by someone who could unite the Islamic world.

Ten years ago, when Zainal Alimuslim joined the group, he was one of only a handful of members from his hometown of Sukabumi. Now more than 1,000 belong, he said.

"It's popular even with junior-high students," Alimuslim said.

But despite the increasing calls for Shariah, there's little chance it will be imposed as national law. The country's official ideology and constitution protect other religions. Politicians in Jakarta have largely rejected pressure from fundamentalist groups. The Islamic political party that performed well in April did so only by playing down any Islamic agenda.

And more important, many Muslims in Indonesia do not know exactly what Islamic law means.

In a recent poll, almost 71 percent of those surveyed said the Indonesian government should require all Muslims to follow Islamic law. But only 33 percent said Indonesia should have a law requiring that a thief lose a hand--part of Islamic law.

"Indonesians don't understand Islamic law," said Fauzan Al-Anshary, the Jakarta head of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council, a post-Suharto group that pushes for Islamic law. "Islam here is just something handed down from one generation to the next."

As if to prove his point, not one of the five candidates in the country's first direct presidential election this year supported Islamic law in Indonesia. And the two candidates from Islamic political parties received the fewest votes.

Instead, voters turned to another powerful force in their country. They overwhelmingly decided to return to what they knew, picking a military man as the new president, a man who once served under the toppled military dictator Suharto.